News - Kosachev: Ratification of Rome Statute is clearly unfriendly step towards Russia

Armenia, like any country that has ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, is losing legal sovereignty, this is humiliating, said Vice-Speaker of the Russian Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev wrote in his Telegram channel. “Ratification of the Rome Statute of the ICC for any state means nothing more than the loss of legal sovereignty, which is humiliating in itself. It is for this reason that truly sovereign states, including Russia, the USA, India, China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran and others, do not join the ICC,” Kosachev wrote. He noted that this ratification is “a clearly unfriendly step towards Russia.” There were no forces in the Armenian parliament that would be able to “stop the ongoing process of legal enslavement of this country by the “Hague Themis,” Kosachev emphasized. “The ICC has the right to exercise its jurisdiction on the territory of acceding states not only on the basis of referrals of “situations” by the UN Security Council or at the request of the participating states themselves (Articles 13-14 of the Statute). According to Article 15 of the Rome Statute, the prosecutor can initiate an investigation proprio motu (Latin for “on its own motion”) based on information about crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court,” the senator explained. “It is naive to believe that in this way Armenia will be able to resolve issues with the investigation of alleged war crimes in the conflict zone with Azerbaijan. ICC case law has repeatedly demonstrated the opposite, namely interference in the internal affairs of state parties. Ultimately, in the future, today’s decision on ratification may turn against the Armenian authorities themselves,” the parliamentarian continued. He also added that the text of the Rome Statute contains provisions to limit the “criminal jurisdiction of state parties”, despite the indication that the ICC “supplements” national criminal justice authorities. “In each specific case, the judges in The Hague will determine whether a particular situation is the result of the “unwillingness or inability” of Armenia to initiate criminal proceedings “properly”, and on the basis of this, at their discretion, exercise jurisdiction (Article 17 of the Statute),” concluded Vice-speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament. The Armenian Parliament ratified on Tuesday the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.